Apparatus and process for crimping



March 8, 1949. s. HEBERLEIN 2,463,620

APPARATUS AND PROCESS: FOR CRIMPING Filed Jan. 21, 1947 INVENTOR. GEORGHEBERLEIN.

BY W1 ATTORNEYS.

Patented Mar. 8, 1949 APPARATUS AND PROCESS FOR CRIMPIN G GeorgHeberleln, Wattwll, Switzerland, asslgnor to Heberlein PatentCorporation, New York, N. Y a corporation of New York ApplicationJanuary 21, 1947, Serial No. 723,249 In Swltlerland January 21, 1946 8Claims.

This invention relates to the production of a permanently crimpedendless yarn.

It is known that yarns may be crimped by highly twisting same andreleasing the'twist. I have found in accordance with my invention thatwhen a twisting head is placed between a fixed entrance point and afixed exit point, the yarn after crimping by twist willstretch and mayremove some or nearly all of the' crimp depending on the location of thehead with respect to the discharge or exit point for the endless yarn.

The principal object of the invention accordingly is to provide a simpleprocess and apparatus of the kind described for-maintainingsubstantially all of. the crimp produced by the high twisting andsubsequent release.

The invention accordingly comprises the novel apparatus and combinationsthereof, as well as the novel processes and steps of processes which maybe carried out in such apparatus, specific embodiments of which aredescribed herein by way of example only and in accordance with themanner in which I now prefer to practice the invention.

In the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification in whichapparatus constituting part of my invention is shown- Figure 1 is aschematic showing of an. endless yarn passing under tension betweenrollers and engaged by a twisting head intermediate the rollers near theexit rollers;

Fig. 2 is a fragment of Fig. 1 somewhat enlarged showing the exit end ofthe apparatus;

Fig. 3 is a similar fragment to that shown in Fig. 2 but furtherenlarged, showing the thread passing to the twister head and through theexit rollers;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged view showing the exit rollers and the take-upreel;

Fig. 5 is a highly enlarged view of theyarn passing from the exitrollers to the reel, and

Fig. 6 is a curve plotted schematically to show the distance from thetwisting head to the exit rollers as abscissa with the ordinates as theamount of twist.

In carrying out the process of my invention,

' I continuously feed an endless yarn under tension on a path between afixed entrance support and a fixed exit support and crimp the yarnbetween these points by subjecting it to the opera-' i 2 tion of afalse-twisting device. tion, I highly twist theyarn through part of thepath mentioned and then suddenly release thehigh'twist in the yarn as itleaves the twisting operation and proceeds to the exit point. I havefound it important to cause this release to occur within a relativelyshort distance of the exit point. During the travel of the yarn betweenthe twisting operation and the exit point, the high twist is released,leaving. the yarn in crimped form. Unless .certain precautions areobserved, I have found that the tension on the yarn tends to remove thecrimp and in extreme cases where the release or the high twist occurs ata greater distance from the exit point, the crimp is seriously damagedand the goods produced are not up to the required standard for theproduction of the desiredwool-like character resulting from thiscrimping of the yarn. I have found in accordance with my invention thatif the high twist is released suddenly and within a certain distanceofthe exit that I can maintain the crimp in the yarn without removingany substantial amount of it. Tests carried out by me show that therelease of the high twist should occur at a point less than one meterfrom the exit. point. In practice, I employ a distance of about 2.5 toabout 50 centimeters between the point where the release commences andthe exit point. I have tested the process using distances of 2.5 cm., 4cm., 12 cm., 25 cm., 50 cm., and cm. as the distance between thetwisting device and the exit point and I have found that although adistance of 100 centimeters produced a commercially useful result, theshorter distances produced more desirable results.

The yarn used may be a staple yarn or a continuous yarn and may beconstituted of any of the usual forms of artificial silk, such asviscose, cellulose acetate, cuprammonium or the like, or or may be madeout of any of the various synthetic fibers or mixtures of these withartificial silk; I may also employ cotton. The yarn treated may bepreliminarily subjected to various setting agents and I may heat theyarn in the path between the entrance rollers and the twisting operationby means of a heating device, if desired.

Referring now to the drawings, the numeral l By this opera- .ceeds tothe exit rollers 4, 5.

indicates a supply of endless yarn under tension. A pair of supportingrollers 2, 3, roller 3 being dipped into a container it for supplyingsetting agent to the yarn, and another pair of aligned supportingrollers 4, 5, define the entrance and exit, respectively, of a path forsaid endless yarn. These rollers 3 and ii are shown as driven,respectively, by a suitable worm mechanism t and I mounted on a commonshaft 8, driven from a source of power (not shown). I5 is a heatingdevice located between the entrance roller and the twisting head 9.Setting agentsmentioned above are disclosed in copending application ofHeberlein et al., Serial No. 553,694, filed September 12, 1944.

Intermediate the pairs of rollers is a falsetwisting head 9 forcontinuously highly twisting the endless yarn passing along the path tothe head. The twisting head 9 has a grooved guide roller l placed on ashaft ii arranged transversely with respect to the axis of the yarn i.This false-twisting head is disposed at one end of a bored shaft of amotor l8 and is rotated at a velocity of the order of 50,000 R. P. M. ormore as disclosed in :opending application Kiinzle, Serial Number656,865, filed March 25, 1946. The perimeter of the grooved guide rolleris approximately tangential to the axis of the shaft and the threadpasses to the roller approximately along the axis of the shaft, passesfrom the roller after making one turn thereabout, and proceeds alongagain approximately along the axis of the shaft to the exit of theshaft. Thus, the thread is practically maintained in alignment with theaxis of the shaft in passing to and from the twisting head. The yarn iswound only once around the -roller i0. After passing the twisting head9, the high twist is released and the yarn when it finally resumes itsoriginal twist, that is, the same as it had at the time of entering thepair of rollers 2, 3, emerges from the rollers 4, in crimped condition.The distance from the false-twisting head 9 to the bite of the rollersd, 5 is about 2.5 to about 50 centimeters in practice, although. asstated above, it may be as high as 100 centimeters. that the period oftension exerted on the yarn The distance is such between the twistinghead and the exit rollers is sufil-ciently short to prevent removal ofany substantial amount of the crimp produced by the twisting device.crimped yarn passes to a reel I2 which is driven from a suitable sourceof power by the chain I3 to take-up the crimped yarn produced whileexerting little, if any, tension thereon.

It will be seen more particularly in Fig. 2 that a schematical curve maybe plotted for the twist based on the distance travelled by theyarnbetween the twisting head 9 and the exit rollers 4, 5. In this curvethe abscissae are plotted as the distance or from the twisting-head tothe exit rollers while the ordinates are plotted as the amount high 6(delta) of the high twist, as a result of the action on the continuousyarn between the entrance rollers. In Fig. 3 the continuously movingyarn is shown losing its high twist as it leaves the twisting head 9 andpro- The yarn i in crimped condition is shown in highly enlarged form inFig. 6 and it is in this form that it is wound up on the reel l2.

.What I claim is:

1. An apparatus for crimping yarns comprising, in combination. .a'supply of endless, yarn,

means for moving said yarn along a path includ- After leaving therollers, the

. exit sufiiciently short to prevent removal of any substantial amountof the crimp produced by such false-twisting, a reeling device and meansto take up the crimped yarn thereon while exerting substantially notension on said yarn between said exit and said reeling device.

2. An apparatus for crimping yarns comprising, in combination, a supplyof endless yarn, means for moving said yarn along a path includingsupporting devices for said yarn at the entrance and exit of said path,a false-twisting head on said path for continuously highly twisting saidyarn passing therealong and for releasing the twist in said yarn afterit has passed the head, thus providing a crimp therein, said twistinghead being located at a distance of about 2.5 to 50 centimeters fromsaid exit, a reeling device and means to take up the crimped yarnthereon while exerting substantially no tension on said yarn betweensaid exit and said reeling device.

3. An apparatus for crimping yarns comprising, in combination, a supplyof endless yarn, aligned rollers defining the entrance and exit of apath for said yarn, driving mechanism for said rollers, a false-twistinghead on said path for continuously highly twisting said yarn passingtherealong and for releasing the twist in said yarn after it has passedthe head, thus providing a crimp therein,'said twisting head beinglocated at a distance of about 2.5 to 50 centimeters from said exit, areeling device and means to take up the crimped yarn thereon whileexerting substantially no tension on said yarn between said exit andsaid reeling device.

4. An apparatus for crimping yarns comprising, in combination, a supplyof endless yarn, aligned rollers defining the entrance and exit of apath for said yarn, driving mechanism for said rollers, a false-twistinghead between said rollers for continuously highly twisting said yarnpassing along said path to the head and releasing the high twist in saidyarn after it has passed the head, thus providing a crimp therein, saidtwisting head being located at a distance of about 2.5 to 50 centimetersfrom said exit rollers, said distance of said twisting head from saidexit rollers being such as to shorten the period of tension between saidhead and said exit rollers so as to prevent removal of any substantialamount of the crimp produced by such falsetwisting, a reeling device andmeans to take up the crimped yarn thereon while exerting substantiallyno tension on said yarn between said' exit and said reeling device.

5. A process for crimping yarn which comprises, continuously feedingendless yarn under tension on a path between a fixed entrance point anda fixed exit point and crimping the yarn between said points bysubjecting it to a falsetwisting operation including highly twisting theyarn through part of the path, then suddenly releasing the high twist inthe yarn as it leaves the twisting'operation and proceeds to the exitpoint, thelength of the path in which the twist is released being suchthat no substantial amount of the crimp produced thereby is removed, andwithdrawing the crimped yarn from the exit point substantially withouttension.

6. A process for crimping yarn which comprises, continuously feedingendless yarn under tension on a path between a fixed entrance point anda fixed exit point and crimping the yarn between said points bysubjecting it to a falsetwisting operation including highly twisting theyarn through part of the path, then suddenly releasing the high twist inthe yarn at a distance of about 2.5 to about 50 centimeters from theexit. and withdrawing the crimped yarn from the exit point substantiallywithout tension.

' GEORG HEBERLEIN.

REFERENCES crrnn The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,089,239 Whitehead Aug. 10, 19372,244,832 Finlayson et a1. June 10, 1941 10 2,340,577 Bradshaw Feb. 1,1944 Butishauser Aug. 29, 1944 Certificate of Correction Patent No.2,463,620. March 8, 1949.

GEORG HEBERLEIN It is hereby certified that errors appear in the printedspecification of the above numbered patent requiring correction asfollows:

Column 2, line 41, strike out or, second occurrence; column 3, line 63,strike out the word high, both occurrences;

and that the said Letters Patent should be read with these correctionstherein that the same may conform to the record of the case in thePatent Office.

Signed and sealed this 16th day of August, A. D. 1949.

THOMAS F. MURPHY,

Assistant Commissioner of Patents.

